


So how about trans boy Percy Weasley?

by jsprgrey (keepcalmfangirlon)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, Coming Out, Dysphoria, Gen, Realization, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Trans!Percy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-23 15:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3772921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepcalmfangirlon/pseuds/jsprgrey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She remembers flying and her mother’s call of “Boys!” and not correcting her and, 10 being a lot different than 8, wonders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So how about trans boy Percy Weasley?

**Author's Note:**

> Credit goes to pocketpadfoot on Tumblr for this - I started to reblog his post on the topic and ended up accidentally writing over 1k in half an hour (which is some kind of record for me).
> 
> http://pocketpadfoot.tumblr.com/post/116668973060/so-how-about-trans-boy-percy-weasley

     Persephone is 5 when Arthur is promoted to the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, and to celebrate, he and Molly get each of the children a new outfit. Persephone - Seph for short - stares at her reflection in the mirror, long red hair curling softly over the collar of the dress, and realizes she’d rather wear Bill and Charlie’s hand-me-downs the rest of her life than ever have to wear a dress again. Whether it’s by luck or her first bit of accidental magic, the dress no longer fits within the next couple months anyway, and Molly tucks it away in the back of her and Arthur’s closet. Ginny can wear it when she’s big enough, although that seems a long way away.

     When she’s 6, the accidental magic is undeniable. She hadn't meant to grow Bill's and Charlie’s hair out as long as hers, but they’d been teasing her (Charlie trying to seem cool to his big brother, who’d only been home from Hogwarts for a week and wouldn't shut up about it everything he could do now) about chewing on it the same way she’d sucked her thumb as a baby. When Molly cuts their hair back to its original length, Seph insists hers be cut too, and Molly finally agrees, if only so she won’t end up in St. Mungo’s with a hairball. Seph wishes she had cut it shorter than a bob, though, and when she wakes up in the morning with a pixie cut instead, she smiles at her reflection approvingly.

     At 7, Persephone has had enough of her ridiculous name. She can read pretty well for her age, and finds the name Percy in one of Charlie’s Muggle books (secondhand, of course). It’s much better than Seph (even if Seph sounds a lot like Seth), and is much closer to her current name. By the time she turns 8, she hasn't answered to Persephone or Seph in months.

     Molly and Arthur decide she’s finally old enough to be allowed on a broom, even though Bill and Charlie both got to learn a whole year earlier than her. Bill is 13 now and reluctant to go flying with her when he comes home for Christmas holidays, but Charlie will take all the practice he can get because he’s determined to make Seeker next year when he can try out. The twins run around underneath them, throwing red apples as makeshift Bludgers and green ones as makeshift Snitches. When it’s time for lunch, Molly absentmindedly calls “Boys!” out the window, and Percy doesn't correct her (although she notices Fred and George exchanging a look, already used to being confused for each other and not correcting anyone when they can use it to their advantage). She thinks she ought to wonder why it doesn't bother her, but she’s 8 and self-analysis isn't as interesting as her mother’s cooking.

     Her 9th birthday passes and George manages to somehow turn her hair Slytherin green, which neither she nor Molly are pleased about, but Percy is just glad they didn’t turn it pink (like that old dress, which Ginny has grown into now). When Molly fixes it she makes it grow out a little longer than Percy’s long-ago bob, and Percy glowers for the rest of the day. Molly cuts it again after dinner, and 3 weeks later the twins turn Ron’s teddy bear into a spider the size of a dog, and Percy’s temporarily green, temporarily long hair is forgotten about.

     She’s 10 when Ron asks where babies come from, and not satisfied at all with Molly’s brief and startled answer, although Ron takes it in stride and goes back to playing Gobstones. Later, Molly tells Fred and George to take Ron and Ginny and go play outside (”no brooms!”), and takes Percy aside for a very awkward talk. At the end of it Percy is horrified, and after Molly has left her bedroom, she locks herself in until dinner. That night after she’s sure everyone has gone to sleep, she locks the door again and removes her dressing gown. She pulls out the diagrams Molly had drawn and holds the pieces of parchment in front of her body, looking in the mirror. It doesn't sound as though she has any choice in the matter, but the idea of her body going through all the changes Molly had said it would sickens her. She turns the one for her chest over and on the back draws a different diagram. She’s helped change diapers and give baths before with both the twins and Ron, and although the drawing is far from being anatomically correct, holding it in front of herself doesn't bring to the surface the same horror she’d felt earlier. She remembers flying and her mother’s call of “Boys!” and not correcting her and, 10 being a lot different than 8, wonders.

     Her Hogwarts letter arrives on her next birthday, barely a week before school starts, and she’s relieved to see it addressed to Percy and not Persephone. Molly remarks offhandedly that Bill’s had had his full name, William, but she sets the letter down and wraps Percy in a hug. They aren't going to Diagon Alley for another week, and Percy spends most of that week up in her room, staring in the mirror and whispering quietly. “This is my brother, Percy,” she says, pretending to be Bill or Charlie, she’s not picky which. “It’s his first year. He just turned 11. He likes to read. Those are his books. He’s got a pet rat. His rat's name is Scabbers.” By the end of the week the words coming out of his mouth feel natural.

     Percy goes down to breakfast the day they’re supposed to go to Diagon Alley, and when he’s on the edge of the stairs, out of sight from the kitchen, hears Arthur tell Ron, “Go wake Percy and tell her breakfast’s ready.” He wonders how the rest of his family can not know, can not see written on his face the things he’s come to find out about himself over the past week, months, years. Ron comes around the corner, sees Percy, and yells back to the kitchen, "She's already awake, Dad!" and Percy realizes with a jolt he’s going to have to tell them. He wonders if Bill had felt like this when he brought that Hufflepuff boy home last summer, but that's nowhere close to what he's about to do.

     Still, his parents and two older brothers are all Gryffindors, and it’s likely he'll be one as well, so after they’ve eaten he summons all his courage and asks, “Mum? Dad? Can I talk to you before we go?” Fred and George look as though they’re about to start teasing him for being a scared little firstie, even though they’re younger than he is and not even starting Hogwarts for another two years, but Charlie gives them a look and takes them, Ron, and Ginny upstairs to get ready. Molly and Arthur follow Percy outside to the garden, looking as though they too are expecting a case of first year jitters.

     "What's up, Perc?" Arthur asks, and for a split second Percy reconsiders telling them, but it's all been falling into place, and it feels _right_ , and so he clears his throat, and then starts at the beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> I drew from my own experience for this, all the little things adding up slowly over the years, but I haven't written a lot of trans characters before so if there's something you think I can improve on feel free to tell me! I understand that my experiences aren't everyone else's and will definitely appreciate the insight.
> 
> I probably could've kept it going longer than I did, but I've already got an original project going that I should be working on instead, and this felt like a good ending place.


End file.
